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Show Report

by Alexander Fury on 19 January 2011.

Tailoring came in brilliant orange, navy and black, sometimes shorn of lapels or cropped short, the kind of hyper-modern details Mugler loved.

Nicola Formichetti's debut outing for the house of Mugler was quite possibly the most anticipated of the season - it certainly added a must-see sparkle to the traditionally staid and sedate first day of the Paris menswear schedule. Much the same, it must be said, as Monsieur Mugler's own presentations way back when - no doubt a memory still hot in the back of Formichetti's mind when planning this all-important opening act.

Mugler's insidious influence is more usually manifested in the womenswear season than the mens - his moulded forties tailoring and bombshell evening dresses, per se - but this season felt especially appropriate for men, given that the oversized shoulders, cinched waists and exaggerated details of the winter menswear shows owe a debt to his theatricised vision of man. Sometimes that bordered on kitsch and cartoonish, but for his first outing Formichetti looked to the darker bent of the Mugler man. 'Anatomy of Change' was the clever title: after all, Mugler was obsessed by the human form, a product of his training as a dancer with the Strasbourg ballet. Formichetti's own obsession is Rick 'Rico' Genest, covered with skeletal tattoos and featured in a film short created by Mariano Vivanco and playing out behind the Mugler catwalk.

Genest himself appeared on the catwalk, modelling the newly-changed and charged Mugler - for this outing, at least, sticking relatively close to the recognisable Mugler signatures of the past. Tailoring came in brilliant orange, navy and black, sometimes shorn of lapels or cropped short, the kind of hyper-modern details Mugler loved. Formichetti also experimented with a softer side, with wide draped trousers pooling around the ankle, or models' torsos swathed in organza.

More unconventional was a surfeit of latex, again draped, but also seamed into translucent trousers or soft little biker jackets. One of those was recently sported by Ms. Gaga, quite naturally the musical director of this latest outing - in a blaze of publicity guaranteed to send the press office into a frenzy and the garments flying off the racks. With shades of Mugler's own high-profile collaborations with the likes of George Michael way back when springing cat-like to mind, Formichetti seems right on track with this revival.